Le Mouvement Action-Chômage, an unemployed workers' defence group, is disassociating itself from its former spokesperson, Pierre Céré, who is standing for the PQ in Laurier-Dorion (Villeray and Parc-Extension). They say that they weren't surprised, as Céré acted as a spokesperson for the Bloc and its spokesperson (Gilles Duceppe). Remember, Duceppe was actually very good on that issue and many people outside Québec praised his dogged fight on the issue, whether or not they agreed with him or the Bloc otherwise.

But the MAC is making a point to speak out against the PQ, also supporting austerity politics and attacks on the working class. Remember, the PQ made cuts in welfare payments of all things - I believe that they had to back down to some extent.

Céré is also opposing Andrés Fontecilla, a community organiser in Villeray, of Chilean origin, who is one of the spokespersons for Québec solidaire. I just hope this doesn't get the Liberal clown who is representing this riding now re-elected.

Laurier-Dorion is just north (Jean-Talon boundary) of Gouin, held by Françoise David, and where I live now (I used to live in Laurier-Dorion, a few streets north of where I live now).

The leading populist agitator in favour of charter, Richard Martineau of Journal de Montreal, today in his column raises distinct possibility of a minority Govt. In which case, all that PQ stuff dies on the order paper or gets hugely watered down.

If that doesn't confirm the PQs social democratic credentials once and for all, what ever will?!

A bizarre footnote: Sun News (owned of course by Quebecor that Peladeau used to head) ran with this precise story a couple of weeks back but Peladeau denied it at the time. According to the Sun report... The rumours swelled after the Prince Arthur Herald reported that Peladeau would be a Parti Quebecois candidate for the riding of St. Jerome.

If that doesn't confirm the PQs social democratic credentials once and for all, what ever will?!

That would be like identifying a Green Party candidate as having social democratic party credentials, so therefore the Green Party is social democratic.

I don't buy it.

I understand that there are many progressives that vote PQ and BQ, but there are conservative nationalists as well.

Having noted that, "uncle google" tells me that the $7/day daycare was implemented by Marois in 1997 and that one of her interests this time around is to eliminate the fee. So there are certainly some shared interests that might be worked on between a federal ndp government and a PQ government in Quebec.

Union-busting vermin PK Péladeau will indeed be standing for the PQ in St-Jérôme. He kept both Le Journal de Québec et le Journal de Montréal workers locked out for very long periods, and has busted unions as far away as in France.

Rene Levesque must be rolling over in his grave to see a Berlusconi-like monstrosity like Peladeau becoming the de facto leader of the PQ. Levesque led a journalists strike at Radio Canada and now his party will be controlled by an anti union firebrand who locked out journalists

Françoise David was on the radio this morning saying that no Québec solidaire MNA would "ever, ever" sit on the same bench as PKP. We'll see how the pseudo-lefty PQ panderers (like Dubuc and Laviolette) explain how this is all for the greater good of the nation.

lagatta wrote: I do hope people realise that sherpa-finn was being facetious about union-busting scum Péladeau's social-democratic credentials.

Thanks, l! As they say, if you need to explain your jokes afterwards, they probably weren't very good jokes!

Two follow-up points of note: some Qc journalists now musing that the PQ's private polling numbers must be looking very strong, because someone like Peladeau doesn't run in an election just to sit in opposition.

And if the PQ does win, those will surely be interesting caucus / cabinet meetings with former student leaders sitting around the same table with Peladeau. Someone's is going to be taking a little water in their wine!

(And you just gotta wonder what all those loyal Sun News viewers in Kamloops and Etobicoke will think of the news that their trusty source of all truth has now been revealed as the plaything of a damned separatist!)

If Peladeau was only going to run with the assumption that a PQ win was guaranteed, he would not trust any polls the PQ showed him... He would commission polls himself! Why would he trust so called internal polls that the PQ could easily manipulate to make him think he could win.

For Peladeau it's a win win. If the PQ wins he becomes finance minister. If the PQ loses he becomes the new leader of the party.

The Charest Liberals are pretty damned rightist as well; always strongly in favour of more private medical clinics for one thing, not to mention their Plan Nord, with no consultation of Indigenous peoples. Also corrupt as all hell.

sherpa-finn, and former trade unionists and community activists. Thinking of a couple of people I know personally, Pierre Paquette and Pierre Céré.

And for once, I find myself entirely in agreement with something Stockholm has said, in relation to a Québec topic. Will lightning strike?

I never said that the Charest Libs weren't right wing...I'm saying that the PQ have swung to the hard right and the thought of Péladeau as Finance Minister is far scarier than what the PLQ under Charest.

Québec has never seen the austerity measures a slug like Péladeau will no doubtedly impose.

I can only hope that progressive péquistes wake up and realize that their interests lie with Québec Solidaire and a nice chunk of PQ votes find their way to our Orange team.

Independence replaced by the values charter in spot number one and a labour-basher as "star candidate" of the parti Sun Media. PQ progressives really have to ask some hard questions rather than the sort of QS-bashing they were up to in the past couple of days.

The Pauline Marois who proudly presented her new candidate this morning is a little different from the one banging on pots during the maple spring.... Experience as the Big Boss is not always the best preparation for a life in politics, just look at Paul Martin and François Legault ... This will leave a bitter taste amongst the separatist-eating journalists of Sun Media ....

Yes, of course I'd pay more Hydro in Ontario (even though the GTA is considerably warmer than greater MTL), but my income has declined in recent years, due to Harperoid cuts to almost all of my clients. And try finding a "real job" past 55...

Like him or not (I certainly don't, not after how he treated the people who worked for him), but his candidacy has probably assured a majority to the PQ and, in the future, he could possibly play the role of Lucien Bouchard in a referendum. All the PLQ and CAQ criticisms about PQ's weakness on the economic side are becoming moot: the CAQ is in a full-blown panic and the Libs are trying to downplay him and failling. In an election where the economy is the single most important issue by far, this candidacy has changed the cards a lot.

I've got to agree with Duceppe on this. Before Charest gave the Liberals a hard right turn, both the PQ and PLQ were big-tent parties, attracting both left and right wing candidates. On French forums, the PQ was taking a lot of flak because Marois was seen as too left wing: the candidates were student leaders, teachers, union leaders, journalists, presidents of the professional orders. There were even talks about how a PQ victory would lower Debt ratings (a major issue in Québec, which has the largest debt of all provinces).

Though I am in the PQ's left wing, for the ultimate goal of independance, I was quite aware of the need for the PQ to get more credibility on the economic right (not talking about the social right wing here), and no other candidate could have done it this strongly. I'll just have to make sure that this doesn't change the party too much.

Like him or not (I certainly don't, not after how he treated the people who worked for him), but his candidacy has probably assured a majority to the PQ and, in the future, he could possibly play the role of Lucien Bouchard in a referendum. All the PLQ and CAQ criticisms about PQ's weakness on the economic side are becoming moot:

Nonsense. Star candidates backfire as often as they stimulate, and this guy is very polarizing; lots of people including current union leaders hate or distrust him

And it gives the Liberals the new issue of how close this character was to the Cabinet table as a private businessman. Look at the Left here in babble, no question of QS getting friendly with PQ, au contraire.

Though I am in the PQ's left wing, for the ultimate goal of independance, I was quite aware of the need for the PQ to get more credibility on the economic right (not talking about the social right wing here), and no other candidate could have done it this strongly.

I hope Péladeau goes bankrupt, following financially where the PQ has long since gone politically.

Quote:

I'll just have to make sure that this doesn't change the party too much.

Matthieu, I walked the lines for the workers at not only le Journal de Montréal, but also le Journal de Québec, when attending a meeting in Québec City. It was a horrible attack on all communications workers - so many of us have been reduced to precarity, and his filthy behaviour made matters far worse. I loathe PKP. My wishes for him are unprintable.

I do hope this will increase our vote from trade unionists. Now we have Claude Généreux as a candidate, as well as André Frappier and other trade unionists.

Brachina wrote: And don't buy into the blind trust bs, he already has his minions in firm control of things, he doesn't need direct control.

I am not an expert on this stuff, but I think there are two distinct tiers to the blind trust issue .... the lower end simply separates the individual from direct operational control of his/her assets. And this is what Peladeau claims to have down.

But the higher end obliges the individual to liquidate his/her assets which are then invested and managed by others, behind a closed door.

So even if PKP has legitimately done the former - and relinquished editorial and managerial control of Quebecor - he has not done the latter. Which means that we have a media / communications baron in a leadership position in a gov't that (should it be re-elected) will no doubt be making major policy decisions on a whole series of related issues. Thus the obvious conflict of interest scenario (real and perceived).

Maybe someone remembers how Paul Martin handled this (or not) vis a vis Canadian Steamships ... or others. I don't.